Campaign stop

Republican nominee for governor Ron DeSantis visits Cape Coral

September 12, 2018

Republican candidate for Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, once again took a tour of Southwest Florida waters, this time along side running mate Jeanette Nunez.

DeSantis and Nunez boarded a boat out of Cape Coral Yacht Club Tuesday afternoon among a group of people wanting to know what the gubernatorial candidate will do to help remedy the waters if elected.

"We just want to make sure that the community knows this is a priority (water quality)," said DeSantis. "I think the things that I've stressed throughout the campaign have been, obviously economic growth, higher paying jobs; we've stressed education, improving education, through choice and civics and vocational training; public safety, making sure we're fighting crime, fighting illegal immigration. But the environment, to me, is something that has the most urgency in Florida because we've seen the problems that have happened not just on this coast, but on the Treasure Coast. So this is going to be a top priority for me. We want to act very quickly to do what we can in the short term. But obviously we need the infrastructure in the long term so we're not discharging water from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee River."

Article Photos

CJ HADDAD

Republican candidate for Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, once again took a tour of Southwest Florida waters, this time alongside running mate Jeanette Nunez (at left).

DeSantis went on to say that he believes that cleaning up Florida waters is the number one issue "we" have to address.

For Nunez, this was the first time she paid a visit to Southwest Florida alongside DeSantis, getting an up-close-and-personal look at exactly what local rivers, lakes and estuaries are experiencing.

"I look forward to standing alongside Congressman DeSantis and really taking a bird's eye view to make sure we are seeing what the impact is. We know it has tremendous impact here in this community and we look forward to making some real progress in that area," said Nunez.

Before boarding, DeSantis fielded a few questions from people who came out to hear what he had to say, wanting to know how he plans on fixing the issue at hand.

Building a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee was DeSantis' calling card, stating that he doesn't want to wait, that we need to be urgent and work needs to start now.

"I think I'm the only guy who can actually bring this to fruition (a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee). And I'm going to be hell bent on doing that for sure," he said.

The former congressman, who resigned recently to focus on his campaign, also said that he would work to acquire whatever land may be necessary to ensure the reservoir is built.

He stated that the project would help the Everglades-as well as Florida Bay, which are starving for clean water.

"I think the Army Corps-the way they've handled it has been problematic," said DeSantis, who brought up that he has been a critic of what the ACOE has been doing for a long time.

Big Sugar was also a topic of discussion, with DeSantis again noting his voting record, saying that he was one of three, out of 27, to vote against the Farm Bill in 2018, and that he also voted against sugar subsidies in prior years.

"Our environment here, is kind of the bedrock of our vitality as a state," DeSantis said in closing.